1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information display and, more particularly, to a liquid crystal display (LCD) module, an LCD device and an assembly method thereof, by which, when the LCD module, that is one of display devices for displaying information, is combined with a case to be accommodated therein, the difference between the area of the LCD module and that of the case is minimized.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) that has been rapidly developed recently has a remarkably reduced weight and volume compared to a cathode ray tube (CRT) display with the same effective display area as that of the LCD and it also has a high resolution similar to that of the CRT-type display. Owing to these advantages, the LCD is being highly used with desktop computers and wall-mounted TVs as well as notebook computers. The LCD for achieving the above various advantages needs a technique of manufacturing an LCD module in a thin and compact construction together with a technique of packaging the LCD module in a case to form an LCD apparatus.
Although elements constructing the LCD module become thin due to intensive efforts to realize a thin LCD module, however, the packaging technique required for securing the LCD module to the case does not keep up with the technique of thinning the LCD module. Thus, when the LCD module is packaged in the case through a conventional method, the difference between the area of the LCD module and that of the case becomes large. This impedes the realization of a thin LCD apparatus.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to securely combine the LCD module with the case and to minimize the difference between the areas of them.
Another object of the present invention is to minimize the number of constituent elements and the number of processing steps required for the combination of the LCD module and the case while minimizing the difference between the areas of them.
The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To accomplish the objects of the present invention, a plurality of first locking depressions with a predetermined depth are formed at the edge of the top side of an LCD module in the shape of a thin cuboid in a predetermined interval and a plurality of second locking depressions are formed at portions of the edge of the back side of the LCD module, corresponding to the positions of the first locking depressions. Bosses are formed at portions of the rear case, corresponding to the positions of the second locking depressions, to be fastened to the second locking depressions of the LCD module, such that the LCD module cannot move horizontally. In addition, to prevent the LCD module from moving upward from the rear case, a screw locking hole is formed at a portion of the boss, corresponding to the outside of the second locking depression, and a screw is combined with the screw locking hole with the head of the screw being captured in the first locking depression, to thereby securely fix the LCD module to the rear case and combine the rear case and front case with each other.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first and second locking depressions of the LCD module are formed at portions of the edge of a mold frame, the portions of the edge of the mold frame being exposed to the outside without being covered by signal processing/transmitting members constituting a display unit that is one of constituent elements of the LCD module when the display unit is mounted on the mold frame.
In another embodiment of the invention, a screw having no head is used instead of the screw simultaneously fastened to the first locking depression and the boss. The screw having no head is fastened to the boss and then fit in a nut, such that the first locking depression of the LCD module is tightly secured to the bottom of the rear case with the help of the nut.
To reduce the number of parts and processing steps required for assembling the LCD module and the case, without using the screw combining the first locking depression and the boss with each other, a double protrusion is formed at a front case fastened to the rear case such that the double protrusion presses the first locking depression of the LCD module and is tightly fit in the through hole of the boss, simultaneously, in the step of combining the front case and rear case with each other with the second locking depression of the LCD module and the boss being fastened to each other, thereby remarkably reducing the number of processes required for packaging the LCD module in the case.